Boomer’s favorite decoration when we were kids was the giant table-top German candle pyramid. It was all wood and had a bunch of tiers with little wooden people and animals that spun when the candles at the bottom were lit. Since it was all tiny pieces and there were four kids who couldn’t resist making it spin faster than the candles would normally propel it, the entire thing was looking pretty threadbare by the time we all went off to college. The lattice fences on the side were coming off in chunks, enough of the propeller slats had gone missing that no amount of candle-power would make it spin, and I suspect several of the wooden people were long gone, lost under the couch or eaten by the family dog.

Then, a few years ago, KtG returned from a business trip to Germany claiming that she had gotten as all the best presents ever. “Yeah, right,” we all thought. Then Christmas morning rolled around and we opened the mysterious boxes that had been talked up so much. What was inside?

New pyramids! Hand-delivered from Germany! There was a green one for me and Schnookie, and a gold one for Boomer (who was still living in AZ at the time). They aren’t mutli-tiered, but they’re still perfect.

The front side has the manger scene; the reverse has a shepherd. The rotating part features another shepherd, a guy with a camel, and, of course, the three wise men. It can be a little hard to get the propeller slats at the right angle so that the procession isn’t racing around when the candles are lit.

We actually don’t really ever light them because, well, the fewest open flames in a house with six cats is probably best. Also, I stored the specially-pyramid-sized candles in the attic all summer and now instead of 36 small candles I have one huge candle with 36 wicks. Oops. Fortunately, these puppies glow with the magic of Christmas and thus don’t need no stinkin’ candles.

HAHAHAHA! That’s hilarious! I mean, sad, but hilarious! When Favre was a kitten we used to occasionally light candles at the dinner table, and he would occasionally sit on the table with us. So one evening he starts sniffing at a candle, recoiling from the heat, then sniffing even closer… I figured he’d back off when he got too close, but no. He finally just stuck his face right over the flame and we watched, convulsed with laughter, as his whiskers slowly burned in little curls all the way up to his face. He’d had very stumpy whiskers as a baby, and had only recently grown in a respectable set of them. And now they’re all curly. I crack up just thinking about it!

The pyramids are propelled by the rising heat from the candles, or at least that’s what I surmise with my very rudimentary understanding of physics. The little propeller blades can be adjusted to catch the hot air more or less, making the pyramid spin faster or slower.